


One Sky Above Us

by Caren80



Category: Band of Brothers (TV 2001)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Enemies to Friends, Friendship, Gen, Minor Original Character(s), Original Character(s), Women in the Military, World War II
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-24 06:13:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30067875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caren80/pseuds/Caren80
Summary: Bill Guarnere makes a friend(I suck at writing summaries. I have been staring at this for over half an hour and this is all I have. I can only apologise.)
Relationships: Bill Guarnere & Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	One Sky Above Us

**Author's Note:**

> This is the same OFC, Cat Taylor, that is in my other BoB fic, Nothing of Cities. You don't have to read that one first since this first chapter takes place before that one starts. So I guess that makes this a prologue.
> 
> This is just me exploring one sentence from that story in which I mentioned that Bill and Cat were "somewhat friendly with each other after they had latrine duty together and she had earned his respect by backtalking him" and that's basically why this started.  
> This is also me adding some things into the story that I never even mentioned in the other story and exploring Cat through another character.
> 
> I also mention a character by name who features in some of **captainkilly** 's stories (Charlie Hammond) that she has kindly allowed me to use for this story. And also a big thanks to her for helping me out with the ending that I was super stuck with.

This was a necessary evil and she did her duties, but fuck was it nasty. Some locks of her hair had come loose from all the pins that she used to keep her short and naturally unruly hair under control. She blew some air up to get a few strands out of her face before bending forward and rubbing her wet cloth over the now almost clean floor again.

“Making me do this with a fucking girl...”

Didn’t help that the guy that Cat had to do it with wouldn’t stop muttering about the fact that he’d gotten stuck with her. He was really getting on her nerves. As if the fact that she was forced to clean the latrines until they were spotless with a raging asshole wasn’t bad enough, there were also the occasionally massive spiders that she had to contend with. They really seemed to get a kick out of hiding behind the backs of the toilets and scaring the shit out of her.

She had already made a noise once, but had somehow managed to hide it and pretended that she was gagging instead, because the guy in the next stall seemed like the type who at one point in his life had put a spider in some poor unsuspecting girl’s hair and she didn’t need that shit at all. Dumping water on some unseen spots, managed to get rid of the creepy crawlies before she stuck her hand in and that was good enough for now.

“Fucking women... coming in here...”

She was seconds away from reaching her boiling point, but kept doing her utmost to resist. It wouldn’t look good if she started a fight with this guy. She’d seen other men steer well clear of him because apparently he had a bit of a temper. Even the guys who looked like they might have been able to take him on stayed out of his way.

Giving the stall a final once over, she was satisfied that she’d done a good job and got to her feet. When she moved on to the next one, she walked past the stall that he was currently working on, even if it didn’t look like he had done that much to it. When he heard her footsteps right behind him, he turned his head and she caught him looking at her, his eyes practically shooting daggers. She bit her tongue and kept moving. Kneeling down, she had just been about to start when she heard him talk again.

“Goddamn women can’t fight. Off to fight a war when they’re usually crying in bed for days on end when it’s that time of the month.”

That was it. If there was one thing that would make her open her big mouth to put this guy in his place, that was it. Throwing the cloth on the ground with a loud audible splat, she got up and moved back to where he was on his knees, gingerly scrubbing the floor.

“What did you just say?”

“What?” He got to his feet and faced her. “You talkin’ to me?”

“You better keep your goddamn opinions about women being here to yourself. Especially since we’re going to make sure that you don’t end up dying when someone puts a bullet through your annoying ass.”

“What did you just say?” Moving closer to her, he got really in her face. “What are you going to do about it, huh?”

If he was trying to intimidate her, he had another thing coming. Her oldest brother, Abe, was one of the meanest bastards that she knew. And he was also a lot taller than this guy. Drawing herself up to her full height, which still made her shorter than him by a few inches, and pushing her chin up, she glared at him for a few seconds.

“There are a lot of things I could do.” He snorted derisively over her apparently idle threat. “Now listen, you bastard, I’m not going anywhere and neither are any other others. So you’d better get used to it.”

Cat had her say and had fully intended to leave it at that. She didn’t want anyone to come in here and find her rolling around on the floor with him as she attempted to punch him hard enough in the face to break his jaw. That was the kind of thing that could get you thrown off the base. Despite the fact that the law had been changed so that women were now able to enlist as combat medics, some of the men that were in charge round here were constantly waiting for the women to make even the smallest of mistakes so they could get rid of them.

_“A woman? In combat? Preposterous!”_

Bunch of old fossils. She had fully expected that she would be on her way out soon as well, but to her surprise some of the guys from her company had been making sure that she never got written up for even the dumbest of things. According to Ralph, even Charlie, who she was convinced had never really been a friend of hers, had started using his considerable resources and connections to ensure that she had remained right where she was.

The guy in front of her didn’t reply to what she had just said, he merely looked at her angrily. That was it. She had already turned her back on him. If she got this place clean as quickly as she possibly could, the sooner she could get away from this guy. It wasn’t until she heard him mumble a reply that her blood started boiling again.

“Whatever, princess.”

Before she quite knew what she was doing, she had already lashed out, her flat palm making contact with his cheek harshly. He obviously hadn’t expected her to do that and was instantly stunned into silence.

“Fuck you, asshole!”

Making her way back to the stall that she’d just left, she got back down on her knees and started scrubbing furiously. She could hear him do the same a few short minutes later and didn’t hear another derogatory peep in regards to women on the base coming out of his mouth. Good thing too, because she would have been ready to fight him if he had pushed her any further.

If there was one thing that all the boys in Brunswick had learned over the years, it was that Cat Taylor never backed down from a fight. And whilst she didn’t want to fight this guy, she’d have no problems with him coming to the exact same conclusion as all those boys had back home.

_If you don’t want to get socked in the face, don’t piss her off._

*****

The following day Cat was sitting in the mess hall with Maddy, Emily and some of the other girls and they were talking about what they’d learned in class that day. In this particular instance they had been getting descriptions about possible injuries that they might encounter out in the field and the person that had been giving the descriptions had added details that were so graphic and vivid that you could practically see it in your mind.

“How can you even eat after that?” Maddy said with a cringe.

“What?” In between their discussion, Cat had been busy stuffing food into her mouth. “I’m hungry.”

“I can barely look at it.” She looked down at the spaghetti in disgust. “Just reminds me of...”

“Guts hanging out?” Cat picked some of the pasta up with her fork and let it fall down on the plate. “Blood squirting out of wounds?” Her fork made a loud “splat” in the sauce. “Or… wait, hang on...”

“You’re disgusting.”

“As long as you still love me.” She blew the brunette sitting opposite her a kiss. “Better eat that before it gets cold. Wouldn’t want you to pass out later because you didn’t get enough food into your stomach.”

From the corner of her eye she could see someone shuffling over to their table and when she looked up, she saw the guy that she’d slapped the night before. He looked a bit unsure as to why he’d even come over at all and was rubbing the back of his neck. She turned her attention back to her food just to stop herself from looking at him.

“Can we help you?”

Maddy looked from him to Cat and then back again, having already worked out that this must be the guy that she had mentioned the night before. Cat had come back to their barracks in a right state, rambling on about how some of the guys on base were complete assholes and how they needed to keep their big mouths shut. Maddy had somehow managed to get her outside under the pretense that she desperately needed a smoke, because Cat had been seconds away from getting into a fight with Jean who had told her to shut up. The two of them were constantly at each other’s throats since they had enlisted for entirely different reasons to begin with.

“I wanted to talk to her actually.” Cat blinked and looked back up to find that he was now pointing at her. “Yeah, so... I think you and me got off on the wrong foot.”

“No shit. You were being a jackass.”

“I’m trying to apologise here, alright?”

“And you’re doing a horrendous job.”

“Ah, to hell with this.” He threw his hands in the air and started to back away from their table. “Don’t even know why I went up to you to begin with.”

“Alright fine. No need to fucking cry about it.” Cat rolled her eyes, got to her feet and held her hand out to him. To onlookers, the pair must have very much resembled a couple of kids who were being forced to apologise to each other by their furious parents. “Apology accepted.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He took her hand and gave it a hard squeeze, probably just to see if she would wince or not before releasing her. “See ya around.”

“Yeah. See you.” Cat sat back down and continued eating. When she felt the stares from some of the women on her, she looked around her with confusement lining her face. “What?”

“What just happened?”

“I don’t know,” she said with a shrug. “That was the guy that I slapped last night for being an asshole.”

“You slapped him?” Emily’s voice shot up a few octaves. She hadn’t told Emily about it since she had already been asleep when Cat had come back to their barracks. “But that’s... Bill Guarnere from Easy.”

“So? He could be the fucking president and I still wouldn’t care. He needs to keep his mouth shut about women being on base.” Emily looked shocked whereas Maddy looked strangely proud. “We’re only here because we want to help. Out in the field I’ll be making sure that guys like him don’t die. Don’t know why he has to be all salty about it.”

“Damn straight.” Maddy held her hand up and Cat high-fived her. “I didn’t sign up for this for shits and giggles.”

“Exactly. None of us did.” She looked at some of the other women who merely nodded in reply. “So he can just fuck the hell off with that attitude of his.”

“I’m just saying that you don’t want to get on his bad side.” Emily looked over her shoulder to watch him walk back to his table where some of the other guys from Easy started cheering and asking him if this meant that he finally had a girlfriend now. “I heard that he got into a couple of fights so you’d better steer clear of him.”

“You think he’d fight Cat?” Emily shrugged in reply to Maddy‘s question. Some of the guys on base probably wouldn’t have any problems with fighting the women stationed there. Some of them had made that pretty obvious a couple of times already. “Probably not. They just made up so that means that they’re friends now.”

“Is that how it works?” Cat asked with a snort. “That easy?”

“Well, he’s a guy. It’s easier for them, isn’t it?”

“I have no idea. Anyway, I don’t think we are.” She looked over to where Bill was now sitting, loudly telling the guys around him to shut up. “I don’t need any more friends.”

*****

“I’m tellin’ ya! She didn’t even flinch.”

“So you said.”

When Bill had come back from latrine duty the other night, there was a red imprint of a hand on his cheek that was kind of hard not to notice. When Malarkey had tried to make fun of him because of it, jokingly telling Bill that he should always talk to a girl before groping her, Bill had very much lost his shit and no one had dared to bring up the incident since.

“And this is the girl that slapped you last night?”

“Well, yeah.” Bill looked down almost sheepishly which was an emotion that he tended not to show very often. Joe hadn’t even known that Bill was able to feel that particular emotion until just now. “But I may have deserved that one.”

He’d been an asshole. No other word for it and her slapping him had completely caught him off guard. When she moved back to the stall that she had vacated moments earlier to give him a piece of her mind, he hadn’t been able to keep the look on her face out of his head. Her dark eyes had been wide with fury and the muscles in her jaw were so tightly set that it wouldn’t have surprised him to find out that she’d cracked a few teeth in the process. It reminded him of his sister, Julia, and how she’d always rail at him whenever he’d done something stupid. She would have probably told him off over this as well and that ended up being the main reason why he had even apologised to the medic today.

Joe shook his head over his friend’s sudden silence. Bill wasn’t being very specific about what he had done to get himself slapped in the face over and truth be told, Joe didn’t actually care. Bill was only telling him this because Joe was one of the least judgemental people around and knew that he wouldn’t take the piss out of him.

“So now what?”

“I dunno. But she seems like an okay broad and I kinda respect that?”

“Okay.”

“You’re not really giving me a lot to work with here, Joe.”

“Well, I’m sorry.” Joe was starting to get exhausted with this conversation and was unable to hide it anymore. “If you wanted advice, you’re better off talking to Lip.”

“I’m not talking to Lip, I’m talking to you!”

“Whatever.” Crushing what remained of his cigarette under his boot, Joe walked away from Bill. “I’ve got other stuff to do.”

“Great help you are!”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Bill followed him a few seconds later, but he couldn’t stop wracking his brain over how to make amends for this. For some strange reason, when she had lashed out at him, she had somehow earned his respect. Back home in Philly, most people tended to avoid him because of his at times explosive temper and the same thing happened in Toccoa as well. So the fact that some girl seemed to have no problems whatsoever with hitting him certainly was a surprise.

It made her interesting to him. Worth getting to know in some strange way.

*****

Cat had been enjoying a tiny break having just slipped away from the rest of the girls and was having a smoke. She sat propped up against one of the buildings and was looking up at the darker sky that was steadily moving in. It looked like it was going to rain soon. Maybe even a thunderstorm if they were lucky. The sky did look mighty dark after all. She absentmindedly scratched the back of her neck and figured that it might be best to finish her cigarette soon before the skies opened up.

“Want some company?”

She was pulled out of her train of thought when she heard a voice that she didn’t particularly recognise and found herself staring into a pair of eyes that managed to look apologetic and angry at the same time. Quite a feat.

“It’s a free country. It was the last time I checked anyway.”

Bill sat down next to her and made sure to keep enough distance between them. He lit a cigarette and then suddenly stuck his hand out to her.

“Bill Guarnere.”

“Catherine Taylor, but everybody calls me Cat.”

He squeezed her hand a little bit harder than was necessary and he barked a laugh when she didn’t respond to it this time either. Her hand hurt like hell, but she knew better than to show it. Showing weakness in front of the men around here got you nowhere and would probably only make some of them think that they might be able to break you.

“You know, you’re alright.”

“Why thank you. Getting your stamp of approval makes me feel so good about myself right now.”

“You sassing me?”

“Sass is just one of the many services that I offer.” She took a drag from her cigarette and continued, “So if I was, would that suddenly make me not alright?”

“Nah. My sisters sass me all the time.”

“You must deserve it.”

“Look, I said I was sorry, alright?”

“Okay, okay. Jesus. No need to get your panties into a twist.”

“You got a big mouth.”

“I could say the same thing to you.” He would have liked to have been able to come up with a smart comeback to that particular remark, but there was no way that he would be able to disprove that statement. She’d hit the nail right on the head actually. “Kind of reminds me of one of my brothers.”

“Oh yeah?” His eyes seemed to light up over that comment. He really was loving that comparison even if she failed to mention that it was the brother who was constantly challenging her and being a general nuisance when they were younger. “You too.”

“I remind you of one of your brothers?”

“Nah! One of my sisters.”

“Oh good. I’d have to slap you again if you started comparing me to a guy.”

“You really have got a big mouth.”

“So I’ve been told.” It was nothing that she hadn’t heard many times before. That’s what you get when you grow up with a couple of boys who liked teaching their baby sister to say things that proper ladies wouldn’t even be able to get out of their mouths. “If you got a problem with that, you can just get lost.”

“Ha! I like you.”

“Thanks?”

“Yeah, I like tough broads.”

“I’m not interested.”

“In what?”

“In going out with you.” She looked straight at him, wondering how he’d respond to that. There had been no offer of a date of any kind, but it was always for the best to just shoot that shit down before it had any chance of materialising. Like how she had just taken to flipping Floyd Talbert off before he even got a chance to get anywhere near her. “Not interested.”

“I wasn’t gonna ask ya anyway!”

“Good.”

“Good.”

They sat in silence for a while and she was fully expecting him to get up at any moment now that she had made it clear that a date was not in the cards. So when he didn’t leave, she was somewhat surprised. Maybe that had not been his intent at all. Cat couldn’t quite fathom why Bill even decided to remain seated next to her at the moment. She had a feeling that she wasn’t going to find out either.

“Are all those girls like you?”

“Nah. I’m a bit of an oddity I guess. All the other girls are soft and sweet.”

“That seems like a bit of a stretch.” She was luring him into this, he just knew it. “Are they?”

“No,” she countered with a derogatory laugh. “You’d have to be insane to sign up for this. We’re no exception to you lunatics.”

From the moment that the powers that be had decided that women would be allowed to train as combat medics, it was fairly clear that women were going to end up on the battlefield one way or another. But that women would be insane enough to enlist with the paratroopers was something that Bill hadn’t thought possible.

Training was tough even for most of the men, so it must have been hell for the women. The group of women who had initially set out to train alongside them had been fairly sizable, but a considerable amount had dropped out since then. The ones that kept hanging in there had earned a certain amount of respect from some of the men and there were some guys from Dog, which was the company that she was with, who didn’t let any of the other men on base get away with shit talking “their girl”.

“Why’d you want to sign up for this anyway? As a girl.”

“I tell all the boys from my company that it’s because I’m stupid,” she replied with a laugh. “But I’d like to think I have a good head on my shoulders. The extra pay that was offered was nice, but that wasn’t an incentive in particular.”

“Was for me.”

“Now why doesn’t that surprise me?” She took another drag from her cigarette and thought over the rest of her reply for a short while. “Just spent too much time surrounded by boys back home I guess. Most of the guys that I grew up with thought I was a boy.”

“Not now.”

“No, not now, smart ass. But I never once thought that I couldn’t do anything that boys could and I made damn sure to let them know it too. So when I found out that the baddest bastards were doing this shit, I figured I needed to get in on it just to see if I could do it as well.” She shrugged. “Guess it all boils right back down to being stupid in a way.”

“Guess you’d have to be pretty stupid to want to jump out of a plane.”

“Exactly. We all have a couple of screws loose. That’s pretty much it. That simple. Or maybe we’re the simple ones, haven’t figured that one out just yet.” She started laughing suddenly and he found himself counting her as one of his friends already. Bill really didn’t take too long to think about things like that. Either he liked someone or he didn’t. “So I’ll get back to you as soon as I’ve solved that one. Alright?”

“You shirking your duties again?”

Bill looked up to see a tall lanky kid with floppy hair and big brown eyes leaning against the corner of the building with a smile on his face. Cat instantly flicked her cigarette away and kept her eyes focused on the glowing tip of what was still left of her cigarette as it lay in the dirt.

“I wasn’t shirking. I never do that.”

“Sure looks like it.”

“I was just having a smoke.”

Realising that the conversation had ended, Bill got to his feet and automatically extended his hand to her to help her up in the same way that Ralph always did. Despite her initial annoyance with him, she had to admit that Bill was starting to grow on her. Whether that was because he reminded her of her brother or because he seemed genuinely likeable she didn’t know yet.

She frowned when he looked at her a bit oddly and when she realised why that was, she mumbled a quick “Thank you.”

“Was that so hard?”

“I’m not always like this you know.”

“Ha! Just messing with ya.” He knocked his hand into her shoulder which almost caused her to lose her balance and he could hear the kid snorting behind him. “So who’s this?” He jerked his head in the direction of the kid. “This one of your brothers?”

“Fuck no, but I may as well adopt his sorry ass.” Waving her hand in his general direction, she added, “Theo Wilson, this is Bill Guarnere. And vice versa.”

“I know who he is.” Bill looked strangely proud of himself when Theo said that. “Think everybody round here knows.”

“Stop looking so pleased with yourself. I doubt that it’s a good thing.”

“Eh. I’ll take it.” Bill puffed his chest out and tilted his chin up. Infamy wasn’t a bad thing. He’d decided that a long time ago. “I should probably get back to my company. They’re lost without me.”

“I’m sure they’re enjoying the peace and quiet for once.”

“I’m not _that_ bad.” She folded her arms in front of her chest and raised her eyebrows which made him rub the back of his neck in a slightly embarrassed way. “Well, okay, maybe a little.”

“It’s okay. Not trying to embarrass you or anything. Just stating the facts as I see them and I haven’t even known you for that long to make that particular observation.” Bill saw a small smile playing on her lips as she looked at him. “Get the impression you’re a bit of a handful, Bill.”

“Takes one to know one.”

“Touché.”

“I could just leave you know,” Theo suddenly said behind them. “Seeing how the two of you completely forgot I was even here to begin with.”

“Oh please. It wasn’t _that_ kind of meeting.” Walking over to Theo, Cat nudged her fist against his shoulder. “As if I’d be stupid enough to have a liaison on base. And out in the open too. That’s just asking for trouble.”

“Betcha were thinking about it though.”

“Please. No chance.” She put her arm around Theo’s shoulder and grinned widely at the boy. “I like my boys soft and squishy, like this sweet little thing.” He brushed her arm away and ducked out of the way when she tried to ruffle his hair. “Brash and boisterous isn’t really up my alley.”

“Won’t know it till you’ve tried it.”

“I’ll pass.” She started walking away from the two of them slowly and they followed after her. “There’s bound to be some girls that are into that though. Check the local insane asylum.”

“Maybe you should come with me. Probably someone there for you too.”

“I’ve dated my fair share of lunatics. That’s why I came here. Shame no one told me that this was where all the crackpots were though.”

“Hey, I’m normal,” Theo suddenly interjected. “Thank you very much.”

“You’re like an oasis in the desert, Theo, but sometimes I wonder whether you’re a mirage. No normal man would sign up for this shit.”

“What about me?”

“I wouldn’t want to hurt your feelings, Bill, but if you must know...”

His grin grew as hers did and Bill was wondering what was going to come out of her mouth when he heard someone come running up behind them and then he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“There you are.” Joe Toye was standing next to him all of a sudden. “Been looking all over for you.”

“Dammit.” He recognised the look on Joe’s face within seconds. “What is it now?”

“Tab and Lieb got in a fight over fucking pomade.”

“Christ sake. Can’t leave those damn kids alone for one second.” He turned to Cat and said, “Gotta run, toots. See ya later.” He turned to Theo as an afterthought and added, “You too, kid.”

“Give ‘em hell,” she said with a smile.

“Always do.” He beamed a wide grin before looking at Joe again. “Come on, Joe, sounds like we need to crack some heads together or somethin’.”

“That’s why I was looking for you.”

They hadn’t gotten far before they heard a loud crash. The thunder that they heard was so loud that they could feel the ground shake underneath their feet. Immediately afterwards, Bill heard a loud squeal followed by a laugh behind them.

“I fucking knew it!” Cat exclaimed loudly and when Bill turned to look behind him, he saw that she’d grabbed the kid’s arm and was pulling on it. “It’ll be pouring in a minute!” Since Bill had stopped dead in his tracks, Joe was looking back at her as well. “You’d better start running too unless you want a lightning bolt up your ass!” Her laugh was infectious and Bill couldn’t stop himself from laughing along with her as he gave her a small parting wave. Turning her attention to Joe suddenly, she called out, “You too big guy! Lightning always hits the tallest objects first and right now, that’d be you! And we wouldn’t want that to happen now, would we?”

She gave the two of them a quick mock salute and then ran off in the direction of Dog’s barracks, dragging Theo behind her. There was another lightning flash now, crackling through the sky, followed by another loud rumbling. It really was starting to get close now.

“I think the lady’s got the right idea, Joe. We better hurry.”

“I guess.” When they hurriedly made their way back to their barracks, Joe said, “So. You guys friends now?”

“Looks like it. She’s alright.”

“Ah Bill." From out of nowhere, Joe nudged his shoulder. "You made a friend.”

“Fuck you, Joe.”

Looking over his shoulder one last time, he just about caught her before she disappeared from view, still laughing loudly over the fast approaching thunderstorm. She sure was a weird one, but alright. That was for sure

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
